We report a general light processing strategy for organic solar cells (OSC) that exploits the propensity of the fullerene derivative PC60BM to photo-oligomerize, which is capable of both stabilizing the polymer:PC60BM active layer morphology and enhancing the device stability under thermal annealing. The observations hold for blends of PC60BM with an array of benchmark donor polymer systems, including P3HT, DPP-TT-T, PTB7, and PCDTBT. The morphology and kinetics of the thermally induced PC60BM crystallization within the blend films are investigated as a function of substrate and temperature. PC60BM nucleation rates on SiOx substrates exhibit a pronounced peak profile with temperature, whose maximum is polymer and blend-composition dependent. Modest illumination (<10 mW/cm(2)) significantly suppresses nucleation, which is quantified as function of dose, but does not affect crystalline shape or growth, in the micrometer range. On PEDOT:PSS substrates, thermally induced PC60BM aggregation is observed on smaller (≈ 100 nm) length scales, depending upon donor polymer, and also suppressed by light exposure. The concurrent thermal dissociation process of PC60BM oligomers in blend films is also investigated and the activation energy of the fullerene-fullerene bond is estimated to be 0.96 ± 0.04 eV. Following light processing, the thermal stability, and thus lifetime, of PCDTBT:PC60BM devices increases for annealing times up to 150 h. In contrast, PCDTBT:PC70BM OSCs are found to be largely light insensitive. The results are rationalized in terms of the suppression of PC60BM micro- and nanoscopic crystallization processes upon thermal annealing caused by photoinduced PC60BM oligomerization.

A set of bulk ZnO samples implanted with O and Zn at various densities were investigated by photoluminescence. The implantation concentration of O and Zn is varied between 1×1017∕cm3 and 5×1019∕cm3. The samples were thermally treated in an oxygen gas environment after the implantation. The results clearly show the influence of O and Zn implantations on the deep-level emission. By comparing the photoluminescence spectra for the samples with different implantations, we can conclude that the VZn is responsible to the observed deep-level emission. In addition, a novel transition at the emission energy of 3.08eV at 77K appears in the O-implanted sample with 5×1019∕cm3 implantation concentration. The novel emission is tentatively identified as O-antisite OZn.

We report the first synthesis of a tetrafluorinated 4,7-bis(3,4-difluorothiophen-2-yl)-2,1,3-benzothiadiazole monomer and its polymerisation with dithieno[3,2-b:2',3'-d]germole by Stille coupling to afford a low band gap polymer with a high ionisation potential. Direct comparison to the non-fluorinated analogue demonstrates that fluorination results in an increase in ionisation potential with no change in optical band gap, and enhanced aggregation over the non-fluorinated polymer. These desirable properties result in a significant enhancement in OPV device performance in blends with PC(71)BM.

Raman scattering has been used to study the influence of nitrogen, a potential acceptor in ZnO, on the lattice dynamics of ZnO. It is found that N+ implantation increased the lattice disorder and induced some vibration modes to be Raman active at 275, 504, and 644cm−1, respectively. Based on theoretical and experimental study, the origin of the additional Raman peak at about 275cm−1 is attributed to the vibration of Zn atoms, where part of its first nearest neighbor O atoms are replaced by N atoms in the crystal lattice.